Girls’ 100 Free – Final

The Americans started the second finals session off with a bang, going 1-2 in the girl’s 100 free. Gretchen Walsh had a slight lead over teammate Lucie Nordmann on the opening 50, and maintained her advantage coming home for the gold and a new Championship Record of 54.47. That swim lowers Simone Manuel’s 2012 mark of 54.60. Walsh was a personal best of 54.38 at U.S. Nationals last month.

Nordmann, who lowered her personal best from 55.08 to 54.99 in the heats, dropped it another quarter-second for silver in 54.74. Australian Eliza King had the fastest second 50 in the field in 28.07, improving her best time down to 54.92 for bronze. Her teammate Abbey Webb was 4th in 55.37.

Boys’ 100 Free – Final

Drew Kibler prevailed with the gold medal in the men’s 100 free in a time of 49.42, falling just over a tenth off his PB from Nationals (49.28). He was 1st at the 50 in 23.80, just ahead of teammate Adam Chaney (23.86), and came back in 25.62 to hold off Japan’s Keisuke Ishizaki for the win.

Ishizaki was the fastest coming home in 25.54, getting him by Chaney for silver in 49.78. Chaney won bronze in 50.01, with Australian Ashton Brinkworth 4th in 50.24.

Kibler has now won the 100/200 double after his 1:47.65 meet record in the longer distance on day 1, while Chaney is now also a double individual medalist after his silver medal on the opening day in the 100 backstroke.

Girls’ 100 Breast – Final

After American Emily Weisstook out the 100 breaststroke Championship Record in the prelims in a time of 1:07.61, knocking Zoe Bartel‘s 2016 mark of 1:07.82 off the books, she had a clear path to gold as the top qualifier for finals by 1.2 seconds. She used her front-end speed to open up an advantage of over half a second on the first 50 in 31.69, and came back the quickest as well to put up a 1:07.55 and break her prelim record by a few one-hundredths. Both swims were best times for Weiss, who had previously been 1:07.99 at U.S. Nationals.

Canadian Nina Kucheran registered a personal best of her own in the prelims, taking the #2 seed in 1:08.81, and like Weiss, managed to improve again in the final as she won silver in 1:08.37. Her previous best was a 1:09.27 done in April at the Canadian Championships, while her best prior to this season was 1:11.84.

Her teammate Avery Wiseman had a big swim of her own to land on the medal stand in 3rd, clocking 1:08.52 to edge out American Allie Raab (1:08.83) and Japan’s Shiori Asaba (1:09.10). Wiseman was just off her PB of 1:08.46.

Boys’ 100 Breast – Final

Canada’s Gabe Mastromatteowas a standout on last night’s mixed medley relay, and he backed that up with a 100 breast gold. The 16-year-old went 1:01.27 to to American Daniel Roy (1:01.85) by half-a-second for the Junior Pan Pac title.

Mastromatteo did so with a brutal front half, going out in 28.71 and opening up a half-second lead by the race’s halfway point. He was far from tapped at that point, though, still beating the entire field over the back half and out splitting the 200-specialist Roy by a tenth over the final 50.

Japan’s Yamato Fukasawa took bronze in 1:02.60, beating out his countryman Kaede Hirakawa (1:02.80) and American Tim Connery(1:02.83).

Girls’ 400 IM – Final

American Emma Weyant used a 1:20.42 breaststroke split to distance herself from the field in the girls’ 400 IM before holding off teammate Mariah Denigan on the freestyle for the gold.

Weyant and Denigan had moved past early leader Karin Takemura of Japan on breast, and then Denigan cut her deficit to Weyant in half after the first 50 of freestyle. Weyant turned up the heat coming home, splitting 30.61 (to Denigan’s 30.80) to win the title in 4:40.64, improving her previous best of 4:42.19 from Nationals. Denigan, who was 4:40.62 in Irvine, won silver in 4:41.39.

Mei Ishihara rocketed by her teammate Takemura on the breaststroke leg as well, winning bronze in 4:45.43 with Takemura back in 4th in 4:46.18.

Boys’ 400 IM – Final

The pool was full of Manta Rays in the A-Final of the boys’ 400 IM. Specifically, Mason Manta Rays, as American brothers Carson Foster and Jake Foster went 1-2 in the event in the day’s last individual event.

While Carson backed way off on the front half of his race, he still held almost a 6 second lead on his brother after 200 meters (2:01.57 to 2:07.24). Jake, though, roared back on the breaststroke and freestyle legs, splitting 1:09.63 and 58.91, respectively; while Carson was just 1:13 and 1:00 on those legs, respectively.

It wound up not being enough, as Carson was faster coming home in the evening than the morning, and hung on to win.

Girls’ 800 Free Relay – Final

USA – 7:57.93 (Meet Record) – Tuggole, Ivey, G. Walsh, Nordmann

Australia – 7:59.97 – Pallister, King, Ryan, Webb

Japan – 8:09.03 – Ikemoto, Ibayashi, Nakamura, Namba

The American women won the opening single-sex relay on Friday with a new Meet Record of 7:57.93. The group of Claire Tuggle (1:59.32), Isabel Ivey (1:59.73), Gretchen Walsh(1:59.72), and Lucie Nordmann (1:59.16) combined to break the 2009 Meet Reocrd of 7:58.26 that included Andie Taylor, Sam Tucker, Catherine Breed, and one of America’s great all-time age group freestylers Dagny Knutson on the anchor.

The 2018 edition included two veterans and captains, Ivey and Nordmann, plus two swimmers in Tuggle and Walsh that are among the youngest on the squad and who will be eligible to carry the torch forward in 2020 (if they haven’t made ‘the big team’ by then).

Australia took 2nd in 7:59.97, with leadoff Lani Pallister having the fastest split of the entire field, even on a flat-start, in 1:58.83. She finished 2nd behind Tuggle in the individual 200 free on Thursday.

Japan took 3rd in 8:09.93, while Canada was 4th in 8:13.37. The USA “B” relay, ineligible for placements or points, was actually the 4th-best relay in 8:10.96.

Boys’ 800 Free Relay – Final

USA – 7:16.42 (Meet Record) – Magahey, Kibler, Rose, C. Foster

Japan – 7:21.40 – Ishizaki, Otake, Hayashi, Tanaka

Australia – 7:26.57 – Brinkworth, Harris, Neill, Smith

About 30 minutes after the 400 IM final, Carson Foster was back in the water, anchoring for the Americans on the 800 free relay. After winning the B Final in 1:48.57 on Thursday, Foster mustered just a 1:49.68 on a rolling start on the relay – showing evidence of fatigue from his earlier effort.

That was still plenty for the American relay of Jake Magahey (1:49.40), Drew Kibler (1:48.30), Dare Rose (1:49.04), and Foster (1:49.68) to not only win in 7:16.42, but break the Meet Record of 7:17.79 that was set by Australia at the 2009 championships. The American “B” relay had a best split of Gianluca Urlando leading off in 1:50.08, so it’s not a slam-dunk that the next-best American option would have been enough to improve the time over a tired Foster anyway.

In This Story

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On the girls’ relay both the US and Australia put their best swimmers on leadoff. I wonder if this is what we should usually expect for competitive relays in the future?

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4 months ago

monsterbasher

Ledecky would have beaten Japan’s 800 free relay if she swam a 800 straight.

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4 months ago

Yozhik

It’s not a news. Ledecky would have beaten the relay of two best 800 swimmers in the history in 1500 race.

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4 months ago

Ex Quaker

I would argue that’s very different. By 800 meters you’ve entered true distance territory and many (perhaps most) distance swimmers don’t slow their pace that much as the distance increases.

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4 months ago

Yozhik

It’s true, but the relay of two swimmers has an advantage of one more flying start and a fast first 100-200 meters until the second swimmer gets into long distance pace. Plus they have one more strong finish that is faster than average pace. I’m really got impressed that if to add 8:14.10 of Rebecca Arlington with 8:15:46 of Li Bingjie and adjust it to 1500 distance we will get only 15:27.71
MONSTERBASHER was trying to underline Ledecky’s dominance by comparing her race with junior relay. My example looks more impressive, I think. But it doesn’t matter: she is great by any measures.

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4 months ago

Jim C

Putting it another way, Ledecky’s 1500 record would be a 16:21.85 at the same pace for 1600, but her pace would be a bit slower for 1600 so something in the 16:24 or 16:25 range would be my guess.

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4 months ago

Jim C

To be fair, 8:09.03 is faster than the 809.13 Ledecky swam at Pan Pacs.

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4 months ago

Noflykick

Head-to-head, (or should I say head-to-heads) KL would have found another 0.11 to touch the wall first.

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4 months ago

MIKE IN DALLAS

Anyone have a link to the FINALS of Day 1 and Day 2?

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4 months ago

About James Sutherland

James formerly competed for the Laurentian Voyageurs in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in February of 2018, placing 11th at the OUA Championships in the 200 IM, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics in May. He …